Clean water is a basic human right

Letter to the Editor

September 5, 2017

There has been an ongoing push by the SWFL Clean Water Movement to demand that our very own Ft Myers town council to provide information to be provided about our troubled local community waterways. The call was to erect QR codes on the beach access signs for up to date accurate data concerning our local community waterways conditions. The idea is based around public safety and up to date factual information about the current conditions for all beach goers to obtain the reality of our local community waterways health. ?After years on end, the SWFL Clean Water Movement has been ignored on this issue at hand for all to just have information about high levels of bacterial levels, phosphorus levels, and the amounts of fecal matter that WE all swim in. Sadly, the town would rather take the approach of "nothing to see here folks" mentality, all in name of continued complacency. Not to mention more inclined to make a fast buck instead of being transparent with all who come to FMB. Ignoring the so called elephant locked in the closet will only make the elephant grow in time in the closet. Before long that hidden away secret will break down that hidden door and expose the Lake Okeechobee discharges for what they are. The elephant has already done just that fact while excessive El Nio cycle rainfalls have produced the unthinkable; the "fresh water releases" occurred in season for all visitors and locals to bear witness to as nothing short of our local ecological disaster. News flash: The lake O discharges will not stop anytime soon for us all on Fort Myers Beach. Furthermore, we as Fort Myers Beach will indeed be the very next Love Canal, yet as a 100% tourism based community who fully depends on clean water to survive as a community we will die as that 100% tourism coastal town in time. Demand CLEAN WATER as a basic human right! If we do not then we will no longer be able to survive as a community who happens to be based on tourism as our No. 1 economic driving engine. ?